Le Wagon

Before Le Wagon, I was majoring in Chemistry, and at the end of my 2nd year of university I realized I would not enjoy working in research nor academic field. I didn't have a good unified field theory of career selection or passion, so I explored a lot to assess my strengths and develop interests. From taking classes outside my major to competing in business case and marketing competitions, and finally ending up on the Le Wagon website. My university is a technology university, but becoming a developer or working in the tech industry almost never crossed my mind because the way they taught us in my "Introduction to Information Technology" class in freshman year instantly killed my interest in programming. However, the start-up culture and presence is really strong around me, I realized that almost every solution to today's problems involves programming. So, I told myself to give programming another shot, because often times you hate something only because you don't understand it. Thanks to Le Wagon, I never thought learning how to code could be this fun, it was still challenging, but the teachers and the curriculum helped me to re-gain my love for learning. I was surprised with how much I enjoyed coding and wanting to learn more and more day by day. With Le Wagon, it is not just about learning how to code but you also have the chance to develop your entrepreneurial and leadership mindset. During the bootcamp, we worked in pairs so we got accustomed to working with peers or pair-programming. Having a buddy who was better than me accelerated my learning process, and helping a buddy who was struggling, deepened my understanding and helped me to develop higher quality code. I learnt that having a great team is so much more important than having a great product idea. I think Le Wagon is a great investment to kick start your tech career.

Le Wagon has an amazing approach of teaching, based on intensive training and exercises all day long, led by a fantastic team of teachers and TAs. I've always been passionate about the start-up world, but always frustrated not to be able to code, or understand it.

Now, thanks to this 9-week intensive program, I can build a website from scratch, and the skills I acquired are absolutely precious. I never thought I would be able to achieve so much in 9 weeks.

So I can say without hesitating that applying for the fullstack intensive program was the best investment I've made so far.

I studied Mathematics at University and after graduating I wasn’t quite sure what career path I wanted to go down. I ended up working as a financial analyst for a government organisation, but before the two year mark I quickly realised this wasn’t where I envisioned my future. What I did know is that I wanted something more mentally challenging that also allowed me to be creative.

During my studies, I remember regretting not making use of the extra curricular classes that taught programming languages and so it remained on my list of skills I wanted to have. I started looking up coding courses that I could do in my free time, however it never really kicked off until a friend of mine recommended Le Wagon. We attended the Demo Day at the Google for Startups Campus in our home city London and were more than impressed. It was then that I started the Ruby Track on CodeCademy and realised just how much I enjoyed it.

I wanted a break from London, as well as better weather so I decided to apply to Le Wagon Bali. There was a part of me that questioned whether I was making the right choice, and if it would be better to do the bootcamp in my home city instead, however I can without a doubt say that I made the best decision to pick Le Wagon in Bali.

All the teachers, Guido, Eli, Prima, Gian-Luca, Rayhan & Sonia were fantastic and were really committed to the academic learning of the students as well as their mental well-being. They went above my expectations and would often stay behind after class to go over concepts or help with issues we were having so readily and happily. I learnt so much from them, but most importantly I re-gained my love for learning and a new found passion for web and application development. I feel confident and excited to now start a career in tech which I find absolutely amazing considering my position just a few months ago. I can honestly say Le Wagon Bali has been one of the best decisions to invest in myself that I have made in a while.

Before Le wagon I was a bit lost, I had just finished playing hockey having to step away because of injury & my mind was starting to go in a lot of different directions. When you spend so much of your time dedicated to one thing, a sudden change can really mess you up mentally & that leads me to explain my experience at Le wagons bootcamp.... It's quite scary being 21 from Canada travelling across the world to learn how to code; something which I knew absolutely nothing about. The first day was intimidating, seeing all these different classmates with prior business, product, and even programming knowledge that I didn't have. A lot of times you want to just give up and quit. I remember week 1 trying to 'iterate through a hash'... and thinking "I'm never going to be able do this I should just throw my laptop out the window", but with the help of the teachers and other classmates everything started to come together & FAST.  Le wagon's bootcamp may not be considered tertiary education in some people's eyes, but they provide you with connections and resources that you could never hope to find on your own. By the time week 9 came I truly felt confident in a lot of different things that I had no clue how to do before and that is all credited to the way the course is structured. For anyone who is a little bit lost in their life but has the desire to consume new knowledge Le wagon is a must. I learned it's not just about the code, there are so many other avenues & tricks that are taught at Le wagon to help you find the perfect setting for you in this rapidly expanding tech industry. For my final project our team worked on MilesX, an app that allows you to buy and sell airline miles for cheaper business class flights.It was a lot of work, there was a ton of web pages to create, and group disagreements we overcame. All in all I think that having to deal with those hiccups along the way made our project better. Any disagreement always spurred new discussions & having 10 pages made everyone work harder on the APIs, the design, and the basic structure. It turned out really well and I'm personally just happy that our group could learn as much as we did in a 2 week period. For anyone thinking about joining Le wagon, do it. If you have a creative attitude I urge you to explore code. I read recently that only 0.5% of the earths population know how to write lines of code; thanks to Le wagon I can now say that I am apart of arguably the most exclusive club in the world! Why wouldn't you want to join that club too.PS.This is of course my own opinion, but learning to code in Bali is unparelleled ;Reece Soukoroff, Batch 306 Bali

I completed the 9-week bootcamp with Le Wagon in Bali, Indonesia in November 2019 (Batch #306). The program teaches Ruby, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, SQL, git, GitHub, Heroku and how to combine everything with the Ruby on Rails framework. Graduates are able to build web applications incl. backend, frontend, and hosting. In addition, the program touches important aspects such as developing in a team, testing, dev ops, and design. In general, the bootcamp curriculum is very well thought out and fully enables graduates to start building.

I’m a 31 years old mechanical engineer and MBA from Germany. In the last five years, I have founded and build a hardware startup in the field of measurement technology for industrial customers. While communicating with our software developers in the role of a product owner, I always felt a communication gap due to my lack of experience in software development. My motivation for the bootcamp was to close this gap and ideally being able to develop a Minimum Viable Product myself for my next startup idea.

The Bootcamp has exceeded my expectations, especially in terms of the breadth and depth of practical skills being taught. Each morning begins with a two-hour lecture followed by challenges for independent study, where you can exchange ideas with a student buddy or get help from a teaching assistant if needed. At the end of the day, there will be a live coding of individual students in front of the whole group. Those who still have the energy after 9-10 hours of programming can recapitulate what they have learned at home with "flashcards" i.e. virtual index cards.

I most liked the methodology and didactic the program follows. Especially the daily challenges are perfectly set up with a gamification approach. Regular successes keep motivation high and the day flies by very quickly. I started a pure online course before and unfortunately had the opposite experience. I can 100% recommend the Le Wagon bootcamp as a full-stack web development in-person program.

The location of Bali is excellent because it makes it possible to relax on weekends in fantastic surroundings. In addition, almost all the students have traveled to Bali for the bootcamp and can concentrate on the program without distractions.

I just completed the Full-Stack Development Bootcamp with Le Wagon in Bali, Indonesia (Batch #306). In 9 intense weeks, we learned the fundamentals of web development, culminating with us building from scratch two working prototypes. The pacing, teachers, and curriculum organization were absolutely top-notch to learn launching a well-designed project quickly.   Before joining Le Wagon, I was an accountant and business consultant for five years in Washington DC. While I’ve always had a passion for entrepreneurship, I lacked the skills to turn my ideas into reality. Through this (demanding, yet fun!) program, I feel comfortable with my programming foundation enough to continue working on my own after the course. I started a new project just days after!   The typical day looks like this: Arrive around 8:30/9, about a 2 hour lecture to learn a new topic for the day, and then from 11-5:30 you pair up with a classmate to work on challenges at your own pace. At 5:30 we have another lecture/livecode/group activity. The whole time the teachers are there with you every step of the way to answer questions or clarify concepts. Perhaps one of the most worthwhile and beneficial parts of Le Wagon is access to high caliber teachers. For me, this is the biggest separation from learning code on your own.   Overall, I had a very positive experience with Le Wagon. I feel like I have a completely new set of tools to reshape my career going forward. Whether you’re interested in changing your career path, pursing side projects/companies, or simply to learn a new skill, I’d 100% recommend the decision to go with Le Wagon.

Before joining Batch 281 at Le Wagon Montreal I was working in B2B Marketing for IT. The job was ok but there was no room for growth in the company. I felt stuck and really wanted a change. But I also didn’t want to go back University for another 2-4 years. A 9-week bootcamp sounded perfect. So, I applied. Flash forward a few months to the first week of “camp” and right away I knew it was going to be worth it. Our daily schedule was honestly the best part. Class was only an hour and a half long, followed by a good 6 hours of practical exercises. Learning to code is hard and the only way to develop and get better is to practice as much as you can. Believe me, you practice at Le Wagon. By the end of the 9-week marathon I had built so many things it was amazing. From simple math programs, to a multi-page e-commerce site with full front and back end capabilities, it’s hard to think that it was only back at the beginning of July that I started all of this. Everything I’ve said so far alone would make doing the bootcamp worth it. But there is so much more to it. I met and made new friends, made fantastic network connections, attended my first hack-a-thon, and joined a network of amazing Alumni from around the world. I loved my time at Le Wagon Montreal and wouldn’t change the long hard hours and large team projects for the world.

my trip with the Paris wagon.
When I started thinking about participating in The Wagon, many people tried to discourage me by telling me that I can learn all these things online or that the market is already saturated with developers. Some thought I would find the coding boring, even though nothing could have been more boring than my old Job.
I was a physical trainer but I was bored.
I worked in France and England but I was bored.
Then I made the decision to make the car and applied.
What can I say except that it was exceptional.
I'm not disappointed that I did it and my only disappointment is that I didn't do it sooner.
Everything is magnificent from the premises to the people we meet, the evenings with the alumni.

The content of the courses is rich and well explained.
The teachers are patient and know how to get you back on track if you ever let go.
It's intense especially during the first 3 weeks but you have to hold on and not lose hope.
Things integrate into you without you noticing.
I didn't think I would be able to succeed in this adventure, the teachers supported me and motivated me until I unblocked and headed for success with the certificate.
every week you have an after work and different activities which makes you feel like you are part of a big family.
And indeed we are a big family with links all over the world.
If you hesitate any longer, you will miss out on an extraordinary adventure that can change the course of your life.

I had no technical background or experience at all when I decided to join Le Wagon, I have a degree in Literature/Philosophy and had spent 8 years in education recruitment - so quite different! I’d been contemplating making a career change for a while, and did a lot of research into different options before I landed on the idea of a bootcamp course. I applied to a few of the different bootcamps in London but was leaning towards Le Wagon for a number of reasons, two of them being how welcoming and friendly Alex was when I had my interview at their (really cool) London campus, and secdonly how active and connected their alumni network is. I wanted to be part of something that doesn’t suddenly end when you finish the course, but is about giving and receiving support for the long term. I was accepted onto the course that started in July 2019, and the course itself was a complete whirlwind of great fun with awesome people. The days were intense and I dreamt about code pretty much every night, but they have perfected the balance between hard work with social activities and really nice touches, like cake every time it’s someone’s birthday (which was a lot), yoga, pizza lunches and other social events to help everyone let off steam. The curriculum builds day by day in such a way that feels so natural - you don’t realise how much you’re learning until you’re suddenly building entire web apps! I absolutely recommend Le Wagon to anyone who wants to learn to code without hesitation.

Lawyer until June 2018, I did batch #250 at Le Wagon Paris between April and June 2019. Before Le Wagon, I created my training organization in October 2018. Since a very young age, I was interested in computers. Fascinated by coding, learn it was the next logical step.

Because of my schedule and after looking a few different schools, there was one in particular that caught my eye. It was Le Wagon ! Why ? They teach you « coding » in only 2 months, and they make it very easy for you to reach your goal right after (find a job, start your own business...).

I've never learn so much in a short period of time !

The most amazing thing that I truly value during my time at Le Wagon was meeting so many like-minded people. Not just meeting our teachers and cohort, learning in a co-working space got me a chance to meet different entrepreneurs, developers, designers... It helps me to stay motivated and inspired throughout my coding journey. The teachers and teaching assistants are always there to support you and you will be learning a lot really fast.

And you know what ? I’m now, in turn, a teaching assistant at Le Wagon Paris.

A big thank you to Le Wagon Paris and their staff for making this whole bootcamp a life changing experience.

If you are wondering whether you should do it or not. Just stop wondering and go for it, you will never regret it.

Having been into tech for some time, I joined Le Wagon in Bali between graduating from uni in London and starting my job in ecommerce at Amazon a few months later. My goal was to acquire the skills necessary to evolve within more technical roles within the tech industry or be able to put together a product quickly if I ever wanted to start a business.

Le Wagon promises to bring technical skills to creative people and delivers on that promise splendidly.

As you start the bootcamp having seen some of the products presented on demo day, you think ‘There’s no way I’ll be able to do something like this’ but as the weeks pass by your ability to build grows exponentially and everything starts coming together. LW provides all the skills you need to put together a well-functioning, well-designed app. I was lucky to be able to build my product idea in a team of 3 and the end result exceeded in every way the expectations that I had for an MVP.

First you learn about the inner workings of Ruby, Object Oriented Programming and the MVC pattern, that will let you build the back end of your project. You then learn the UI/UX side of things with HTML/CSS and JavaScript. Finally you learn to make everything come together with a developing framework (Ruby on Rails) and get plenty of opportunities to practice by building two web apps.

About Bali:
I literally cannot think of a reason why someone would choose to do Le Wagon anywhere else than Bali. It will cost you less to fly in and out of you country and live in a villa near the beach and live comfortably than rent a room and live day-to-day in a big city.

I also cannot think of a better learning environment than Bali. Let me illustrate my point with a description of perfect day at LW Bali:

6:30am: Wake up and drive down to the beach on my scooter for a surf lesson
8am: Come back home, jump in the pool, shower and head to Le Wagon. The classroom is on the rooftop of a hotel with sea view. Get an omelette for ~£1 from the hotel’s kitchen, get ready for the day.
9am: Go over today’s new concepts in the  1h/1h30 lecture, settle with my buddy for the day on the bean bags on the terrace and start work on today’s exercises.
12:30am: Lunch break. Go with some classmates to one of Canggu’s restaurants (they’re all super close), eat a filling and healthy lunch for a fraction of what it would cost me in London. Head back to LW.
1:30pm: Solve more problems, they usually get more and more challenging as you get through them. Raise a few tickets if I get stuck on some exercises.
Around 5pm: Live code time, a teacher presents us with a problem that we have to solve in teams right there, and then we go through the solution all together.
6pm/6:30pm: Head to a bar/restaurant on the beach with some classmates, share a beer and a dinner, watch the sunset.
8:30pm: Go home and go over today’s flashcards to internalise today’s new concepts. Sleep early to feel energised for the next day!

All in all, the quality of living is so good that you can focus truly on getting as much as you can from the program. The vibe is relaxed enough that you don’t feel FOMO from working a lot but dynamic enough that there’s always somewhere exciting to go on the weekend.

About the people: The core team is amazing and makes sure that everything works out fine. When I had a last minute passport issue, they worked with me and found a last minute solution that solved the issue. They’re people you can talk to seriously if there’s an issue but that you can also have fun with on the weekend.

As for the students, the people that do LW in Bali are often ppl that travel to Bali specifically for the bootcamp. As such, the classroom becomes your main source of socialising and you develop a tight community feeling. There are more people that are professional and come here to transit to something new than say, college graduates. The Bali effect means that age barriers don’t really apply there, I was the youngest of the batch and never once felt that was an issue. Everyone comes with their own background and everyone leaves Bali with an international network just from that classroom.

Wrapping up:

I left LW feeling more empowered than after 3 years of university, and probably learned what would have taken me at least 2/3 years to learn by myself in my free time. Also taught me how to learn, after the bootcamp I was able to build my own personal project from scratch with only the help of Internet when I got stuck (and a few posts in LW’s Slack ‘Help’ channel :))

I know some other bootcamps are way more job oriented and will spend time on acing developer interviews, or will train you super hard in one language so that you can get a job as a developer in that specific field. If that’s your ambition, those bootcamps might be a good option for you. Who LW is for: the budding entrepreneur, the creative, the guy who wants to become a product manager. LW focuses on letting you build stuff.